Leeds City Council in plea over glass recycling rates in bid to save estimated £1.5m

COUNCIL chiefs in Leeds are urging residents to help the local authority boost glass recycling rates by visiting bottle banks.

Glass bottles and jars can be recycled at 735 bottle banks at 396 locations in communities across the city.

In 2015/16 Leeds residents recycled 9,654 tonnes of glass. However, estimates show that there could be around another 15,000 tonnes of glass being thrown away, costing more £1.5m to dispose of.

Recycling rates in Leeds are currently around 40 per cent and the council wants to help residents increase that figure to 50 percent by 2020.

Coun Lucinda Yeadon, executive member for environment and sustainability, said: “We’d love to be able to collect glass from people’s homes but we don’t have the resources to do that.

“However, with a few simple steps, we can collect much more glass from recycling points and make the most of our green bins which would go a really long way to improving the city’s recycling rates and help cut emissions.”